Teaching More Than Dead White Men

Critics of Yale-NUS College have questioned the legitimacy of establishing an American-style liberal arts college in an ‘illiberal’ Asian state in which freedom of expression, both political and sexual, are not guaranteed. While this ‘clash of civilizations’ narrative has attracted media attention, one of the most exciting things to come out of the creation of Yale-NUS, in fact, is the innovative core curriculum, which presents a new global model for liberal arts education in the 21^st century.

Prestigious universities and colleges such as Columbia, St. John’s and University of Chicago have long offered ‘cores’ in which students take the same classes and read the same texts. No doubt, these are great curricula containing ‘great books’ and sparking ‘great conversations.’ The only problem: the vast majority of assigned readings were written by white men. One might go so far as to argue that these curricula subtly present a ‘rise of the west’ narrative, in which the torch of civilization is passed from the white Mediterranean to northwest Europe, and then only in the twentieth century is the torch passed (or imposed) upon the rest of the world. Exactly how does one stand up in front of a classroom of predominantly Asian students and teach this outdated narrative?

The core curriculum at Yale-NUS College seeks to tell another story, one that includes philosophies, institutions, arts and texts from around the world. Students compare the Ramayana with the Odyssey, Journey to the West with Don Quixote, the Analects of Confucius with Plato. They compare kinship, economic and political structures and practices in South India, Early America, Malaysia and China. Creating a global ‘core’ has not come without its challenges, but I am confident that the types of conversations and conceptual linkages encouraged by this curriculum have made this experiment worthwhile.